Campaign Settings showing "Use your own domain for referral links" with the "Your own domain" tab selected

Campaign SettingsFAQ3 min readUpdated 2026-03-06

FAQ: How do I set up a custom domain for my referral program?

Q: How to set it up

Campaign Settings showing &quot;Use your own domain for referral links&quot; with the &quot;Your own domain&quot; tab selected

Q: Platform-specific DNS guides

Referral Factory provides step-by-step CNAME setup instructions for the most common DNS providers:

Q: Important: use a subdomain, not your root domain

A very common setup error is entering your homepage domain (e.g. yourdomain.com ) instead of a subdomain (e.g. refer.yourdomain.com ). The custom domain feature requires a subdomain. The setup screen notes this: "Highly recommended to use a subdomain instead of a root domain."

Q: Can I use different subdomains for different campaigns?

No. You can only have one custom domain per account . All campaigns under your account share the same custom domain.

Q: What happens if I change my subdomain later?

Old links will still work. The old and new subdomains act as a mirror — so if someone uses a link with the old subdomain, it will still resolve correctly. All new links generated in your account will use the updated subdomain.

Q: What about the default option?

If you don't use a custom domain, your referral links use a Referral Factory subdomain in the format yourbusiness.referral-factory.com . You can customise the subdomain part in the Default domain tab of the same settings section.

Q: This is separate from your email sending domain

Setting up a custom referral link domain does not change where campaign emails come from. Those are two separate features. See: What's the difference between a referral link domain and an email sending domain?

A custom domain lets you host your referral program on your own branded URL (e.g. refer.yourbrand.com) instead of the default Referral Factory domain.

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